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Washington Coast |
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The outer Washington coast of the United States is a richly productive marine ecosystem home to many species of marine mammals, including beaked whales, killer whales, and several other odontocete, mysticete, and pinniped species. The Navy’s Quinault Underwater Tracking Range (QUTR) is located along the outer Washington coast and has been proposed for expansion (Federal Register, Vol. 68: 53599-53600, 11 September 2003) into deep water habitats used by beaked and sperm whales and south along the shelf where coastal cetaceans forage. |
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Objectives: (1) Evaluate the presence of odontocete and mysticete cetaceans based on the presence of vocalizations near the existing and expanded Quinault Underwater Tracking Range (QUTR). (2) Conduct regular visual observations for marine mammals within the expanded QUTR. (3) Determine the relative abundance of mysticete and odontocete cetaceans in this region using the combined visual and acoustic survey data sets. (4) Develop models of cetacean habitat using the visual and acoustic observations together with remotely sense and mooring basesd oceanographic. |
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In the late 1980s, extensive year-round aerial surveys were conducted along the Oregon and Washington coast (Green et al. 1992), yielding estimates of seasonal distribution for six species of cetacean, and notes on the occurrence of eight others. Since that time, cetacean surveys in this region have generally been limited to the summer and fall, including broad-scale visual and acoustic ship surveys (Barlow 1994, 2003) conducted by NOAA Fisheries, and fine-scale ship-based surveys along the northern Washington coast (Calambokidis et al. 2004) conducted by the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary. These surveys have provided some information on the seasonal distribution of 15 cetacean species; however, none have provided detailed information on the distribution of cetaceans within the Quinault range, nor have acoustic survey techniques been widely employed. In July of 2004, an acoustic and visual monitoring effort was initiated within the boundaries of the expanded QUTR and the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary to characterize the vocalizations of species present in the area, to determine the year-round seasonal presence of all odontocete and mysticete whales, and to evaluate the distribution of cetaceans near the Navy range. Two High-frequency Acoustic Recording Packages (HARPs) were deployed |
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The Navy’s existing Quinault Underwater Tracking Range and its proposed extension, along with the locations of on-going cetacean monitoring efforts with two High-frequency Acoustic Recording Packages, S1 and S2, and monthly visual surveys (solid line) from Westport harbor. |
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near the QUTR, one in deep water within Quinault Canyon (S1) and a second in inshore waters on the shelf (S2). In addition, visual surveys have been conducted monthly throughout the region. This project is conducted in collaboration with researchers at Cascadia Research Collective and with research permits from the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary. |
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Results to Date: |
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Credit: John Hildebrand and Sean Wiggins |
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